Russia to follow national interests in migration policy

January 26, 2012, 16:25 UTC+3The migration sphere has accumulated many problems, which the society is concerned about - Putin

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MOSCOW, January 26 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that Russia was not going to close itself from anybody, but in migration policy it would act in the interests of its citizens.

At a board meeting of the Federal Migration Service on Thursday he set an objective “to improve tenfold requirements for quality of the migration policy, including regulations of labor migration.”

“First of all, we shall be guided by the interests of our citizens, and it cannot be otherwise, by the interests of stability of the Russian society, by the interests of the economy,” he said.

The migration sphere has accumulated many problems, which the society is concerned about and sometimes they “cause outspoken irritation.” He quoted as an example his “friends, who say that in some big cities people try not to go into streets on holidays.” “This is very serious,” he added.

Putin quoted information from the migration service, according to which now there are about 9.2 million foreigners in Russia, and about 4 million of these, though registered, work illegally.”

“It is good if they work, but there are other ways to earn money,” the prime minister said. Problems in the migration sphere give basis “for abuse, for corruption, for violation of human rights, for organized and every-day crime, they deform the labor market, and become a burden for the infrastructure, they become a basis for ethnic and other excesses and conflicts.”